OAN Staff James Meyers
8:53 AM – Thursday, December 26, 2024
An Azerbaijan airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday was downed by a Russian air defense system, according to multiple sources that spoke with Reuters.
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An Embraer passenger jet crashed close to the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, leaving 38 people dead, after diverting from a specific area of Russia, which has used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s Chechnya, then crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea, after what Russia’s aviation watchdog claimed was an emergency diversion that could have been caused by a bird strike.
One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with Azerbaijan’s investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system.
“No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft,” the source said.
However, officials did not immediately explain why the plane had crossed the sea.
The crash also comes after multiple Ukrainian drone strikes hit the Chechnya region of southern Russia as both sides to continue to fight in their war.
Additionally, the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight was closed on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani, Kazakhstani, and Russian officials have all called for investigations into the crash.
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